


Your steps echoing with the beats of my heart

by Verse



Category: Fate/Grand Order
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:27:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24379447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Verse/pseuds/Verse
Summary: There are powers greater than the fire or the blade.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49





	Your steps echoing with the beats of my heart

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous asked: Please use this as an excuse to drabble about Guda (i'm loving your stuff)

“Do you even know how much power you hold?”

It’s Waver, of course, who asks. Strategist’s insight. Also perks of being the most… up to date, let’s say, servant. Not that other servants don’t care about the current state of the world- if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have showed up at all- but he _is_ the most on touch with it. Something about being an extremely modern era servant, or something. You honestly kind of lost track somewhere in his explanation of the Clocktower’s hierarchy.

“Yeah. Gandr is pretty handy!” And it’s also the only spell you can cast without a Mystic Code to help (thanks Medea, you’d have never been able to do it without her.) “Joke aside, don’t worry about me.” You’re getting used to servants striking conversations about how worried they are that you are basically defenseless at any given time. You’re… working on fixing that. “I may not look the part, but I got quite buff, actually. I _did_ survive Shinjuku with my bare fists for a while, you know-”

“That’s not what I mean.” He cuts harshly.

Huh. You close your mouth. He’s rubbing the bridge of his nose. Sighing heavily. Evidently, you didn’t hit even close to the mark. 

“… Avengers.” He articulates, slowly, as if speaking a child.

“… Yes?”

“They hate humanity.”

“That they do.” That is a wound that will never be able to heal, and that much hurts you as if it was your own. You hope, at least, that you can soothe it for them.

Waver gives you his Teacher Look ™, the one that makes you wonder if you said something really stupid. “They _hate_ humanity.” He repeats. “Loathe them, detest them, want them all _dead_. They’re, fundamentally, ennemies of humanity.”

_Ah._

“ _That_ kind of power?” Your gaze falls down on your hands. The knuckles are charred black like soot. They have been ever since that nightmare in the Chateau D’If. “Yeah. Yeah, I know what I hold.”

“Do you now?” He hisses. “Because you don’t seem-”

“To know that gods and monsters alike would answer to any of my commands?” You cut him. “To know that if I really tried, I could probably even convince someone like Jeanne to cut down someone? That I effectively have an army of superhumans who are willing to do _anything_ for me, just because I’m the one to ask?”

(And don’t you hate it, don’t you _hate_ it, to refer to your _friends_ as soldiers. To know that _they would gladly fall into that role_ if you so much as politely asked. You love them, you love them so much it makes you _sick,_ and you know, you know, you know exactly what it means for them to love you back just as intensely.)

“I have seen humanity’s every horrors.” Gawain, standing proud and tall, the Sun on his back, blood in rivers at the gates of Camelot. “I have seen humanity’s every kindnesses.” Uruk shining with laughter and joke, sheltering the strangest and most despaired of refugees. “I’ve witnessed human history and bent it beneath my palms. I know exactly how, when, and where to hit to tear it apart.”

You tilt your head to the side. “Is that, the power you were referring to?”

Waver avers your gaze. He seems to be regretting this conversation.

You can’t blame him. You know you look denser than you actually are. Funny that, how people believe your kindness to be a weakness. As if you had to be naive to see someone like Cu Alter as a person.

All your servants are, first and foremost, people. And you, more than most, know exactly how terrible and wonderful people can be.

“If I really wanted,” _and oh, don’t you hate it, don’t you **loathe** that prospect,_ “I could probably wipe out humanity by myself. I could split the Earth apart. I could open up the Underworld. I could tear at the seams, at the fragile bonds, at the cracks of the world. I know every weakness I could take advantage of.”

You set your hand on Waver’s neck, gently guide him to look back at you. He still looks uneasy, but he humors you.

“But I won’t.” You smile. You’re careful not to show any teeth, but that doesn’t make it any less genuine. “And that’s love.”

He’s visibly taken aback by your statement, and you resist the urge to laugh. He looks down at you, then at your arm, still outstretched to hold him, and then back at you.

And then _he_ snorts.

“Right. Of course.” He sighs. “You really _are_ a human being, aren’t you?”

This time, you can’t help smiling fully; he’ll just have to deal with the sharp teeth. 

“I mean. _I_ have never doubted that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Ok I don't actually think Guda would be that dramatic but badass boasts are a BLAST to write, so


End file.
